Nomination Form
An example of a prosperous early-20th-century livestock and dairy farm, Walnut Grove Farm was developed by Capt. David Harvey Barger following his purchase of the property in 1890. Barger, who made a fortune in railroads and coal mining, retired to his native Montgomery County to become a gentleman farmer. He built Walnut Grove’s porticoed Georgian Revival mansion in 1910 on the site of an earlier house. Structures added to accommodate his farm operation include a dairy/smokehouse, a farm office, a farm manager’s house, and two frame barns. Away from the main complex is a picturesque stuccoed mill used at one time to produce graham flour, the ingredient of graham crackers, developed as an early health food. The mill, an early-20th-century structure, may have incorporated earlier fabric; it was destroyed by an arsonist in 2008. A mid-19th-century log house is also part of the Walnut Grove Farm district.
Walnut Grove Farm was listed in the registers under the Prehistoric and Historic Resources of Montgomery County MPD.
Many properties listed in the registers are private dwellings and are not open to the public, however many are visible from the public right-of-way. Please be respectful of owner privacy.
Abbreviations:
VLR: Virginia Landmarks Register
NPS: National Park Service
NRHP: National Register of Historic Places
NHL: National Historic Landmark
Nomination Form
Programs
DHR has secured permanent legal protection for over 700 historic places - including 15,000 acres of battlefield lands
DHR has erected 2,532 highway markers in every county and city across Virginia
DHR has registered more than 3,317 individual resources and 613 historic districts
DHR has engaged over 450 students in 3 highway marker contests
DHR has stimulated more than $4.2 billion dollars in private investments related to historic tax credit incentives, revitalizing communities of all sizes throughout Virginia
